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How a decade of flipped contracts wreaked havoc on one man’s life

A legal loophole makes it possible for employers to continually subcontract out services to cut workers and wages.

Abdullahi Bare, 62, lost his job as a parking attendant at Pearson Airport after a contract flipped. He has lived through the uncertainty of years of flipped contracts at the airport, where workers have to reapply for their jobs. (Bernard Weil / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

For 10 years, Abdullahi Bare woke up at 5 a.m. for his first job and returned at 11 p.m. from his second: a zombie-esque existence that at least paid the bills.

In retrospect, those were the good times.

After losing his job in the latest round of contract-flipping at Pearson Airport, the 62-year-old former parking attendant is wondering how he will support his family on just one low-wage job — and why after three decades of hard work, he is only just barely surviving.

“It’s work, eat, sleep and that’s it,” he says.

His tenuous reality is thanks to a loophole in both federal and provincial labour laws allowing employers to subcontract out services and then continually change service providers. Critics say that so-called contract-flipping is a way to shed employees, cut wages and keep entitlements low — a practice that has become the norm at the airport.

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Bare began working at Pearson for Ideal Parking as a minimum wage inventory clerk 10 years ago. He was pleased with his progress with the company, securing a raise every year even though he still needed a second full-time job as a driver on the side to get by.

According to Bare, Ideal had held the contract since around 2003. But in 2008, Impark took over the service which meant Bare lost his job and had to reapply with the new company.

Fortunately, he says, he and all his colleagues were rehired by Impark at similar wages and with benefits. The company seemed ambitious, bringing in a successful valet service and hiring more workers. Its employees unionized, and Bare, who worked as a lawyer in Somalia before coming to Canada as a refugee, eventually became union chair.

Overall, “it was a very, very amazing business,” he says of Impark.

But in 2014 the contract flipped yet again. This time, it was awarded to Vinci Parking which describes itself as one of the “leading players” in the industry with operations in 14 countries.

Once again, Bare lost his job. But this time, he and about 40 other colleagues were not rehired. Bare says only one person involved with union activities found work with Vinci. The rest, according to Bare, were axed.

Those who were rehired, he claims, were asked to take a pay cut and were not offered benefits.

“We lost everything,” he says.

When asked about Bare’s allegations, Vinci’s Toronto general manager Adamo Donatucci told the Star, “Here’s my response: No comment.” A spokesperson for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority called Vinci a “very motivated group” and that all employees were given positions of “an equivalent pay or higher” than their previous jobs.

But workers’ rights advocates say the contract-flipping trend is part of a race-to-the-bottom, with large corporations cutting costs at the expense of workers — and sometimes public safety.

Staff refuel a Westjet plane at Pearson airport. (Marcus Oleniuk)

The Star has previously reported on the impact of contract-flipping on federally regulated refueling workers at Pearson and provincially regulated transit workers at York Region Transit.

In countries like the United Kingdom, contract-flipping is illegal. Workers automatically keep their jobs and union when service contracts change hands.

Bare, who is supporting five children still living at home, says he doesn’t understand why Pearson workers are treated like they are disposable — a policy he says is bad for workers and the airport itself.

“Employees are not secure, their jobs are not stable. Everybody who works there is looking for another job.”

Timeline of contract flips at Pearson

(RICK MADONIK)

May 2015: Air Canada joins a group of airlines changing their fueling contract from Allied Aviation to Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG). IAMAW, the union that used to represent refuellers, says 45 out of 190 of its members at Pearson were rehired by ASIG.

May 2015: Swissport loses its customer assistance program contract to Toronto Ground Airport Services, resulting in 282 job losses. About 250 were rehired.

(Vince Talotta)

April 2015: The Greater Toronto Airport Authority announces it will take over Servisair’s de-icing contract, resulting in about 100 full-time workers being laid off. About 25 have been re-hired into fulltime jobs by the GTAA so far, according to the Teamsters Union.

(Randy Risling)

April 2014: Airport parking attendants launch a wildcat strike after about 80 employees of Impark lost their jobs when the contract was flipped to Vinci.

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